Here’s the video from a special Provost’s Forum that I held after the Eucharist today. The topic was my recent sabbatical trip to Canada and the USA. Cedric Blakey was interviewing me and passing on questions from members of the congregation.
Good fun to do and a great set of questions.
Sorry the audio is not better. Anyone who wants to help found a Guild of Geeks to help me do this kind of thing better is very welcome to get in touch.
I thought that what the government actually said was more of a “obviously with the current canon laws in place, the C of E and the Church in Wales won’t be able to opt in to marriage equality because their canon laws clearly state that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
To me the ultimate issue is with the churches and their canon laws that need to be changed, no?
I just saw this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20680924
What in the world is the government thinking?!
Here’s the original announcement – quite clear that it isn’t just about Canon Law. They really are trying to make it illegal for the C of E and Church in Wales to opt in.
The irony that that Department of Culture page is titled “Marriage For Everyone” absolutely knocks me down.
I think that this more than anything else that has happened in equal marriage legislation this year has a real chance of being ruled illegal under Article 9 of the Human Rights Convention.
Church of England clergy, and Church in Wales clergy, may take note of Giles Fraser’s suggestion: “So it will now be illegal for me to marry two people who live (with) each other. Now there is a cause worth going to prison for.” as report in the Independent.
Yes – I saw that tweet from Giles. Whilst supporting the sentiment, I suspect that he is going to have to work quite hard to find a judge willing to send him to prison for it.
Yes, bizarre is the right word!
When the Church in Wales was disestablished back in 1920 it retained its priveledges and responsibilities with regard to marriage.
So, parishioners’ absolute legal right to be married in the parish church remains, as does the automatic right of Church in Wales clergy to be able to conduct marriages by virtue of their ordination alone.
We recently amended our requirements for residence to stay in line with the CofE, while they were able to do it through General Synod we had to resort to a Private Bill.
It now seems there are to be no EXTRA hurdles required by these two Churches, other than the separate Acts of Parliament they would need to change their current practice following agreement of General Synod or Governing Body.
“if your denomination cannot or will not opt in then the time has come for you to stand up for what’s right. If you support equality, do something about it and show us what you are made of.” you not doing any more weddings until the SEC opts in then. Kelvin?
I think it quite likely that should the Scottish Episcopal Church chose not to opt into the coming legislation then I would come to be view that the time had come to stop signing marriage papers. That is not the same thing, of course, as stopping doing weddings.
There has been more than enough said about schism in the Anglican Communion recently. What has gone mostly unreported is a very similar schism in the Evangelical Alliance. It is not over sexuality but over doctrine (natch). However, the nub of the argument is very similar to the one going on within Anglicansim. Here is…
As I was thinking about what to say this Remembrance Sunday morning, I was thinking back to some of the things that I remember saying a year ago. I never thought when I was preparing for ministry and thinking about Remembrance Sunday services that the time would come when I was leading this kind of…
The day begins with the discovery that someone (a member of the Orthodox church community who use the church sometimes) left a box of candles on a heater yesterday. The mess and stench greet me when I go into church at 0730 to get ready for the early service.
There was an outbreak of chiasmus in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, with this comment coming from David McLetchie: “Wouldn't it be ironic if … the criminals can be smokers but the smokers will become criminals?”Very clever. Of such stuff preachers are made and preachers make stuff of.
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